{"id":2073,"date":"2023-03-07T12:49:41","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T12:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/?page_id=2073"},"modified":"2024-05-01T10:37:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T09:37:22","slug":"minna-salami-march-2021","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/minna-salami-march-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Minna Salami, March 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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What I am Reading Now\u2026<\/strong>
Minna Salami<\/strong><\/b>
March 2021<\/p><\/div>


I am drawn to books that are imaginative, playful, and passionate.<\/p><\/div>

I am drawn to books that are insightful and eye-opening.<\/p><\/div>

I am drawn to books that remind me why I love words and writing, but also why I love reinventing and fighting.<\/p><\/div>

I am drawn to books that don\u2019t only stimulate the mind, but also the body and senses. Books that my body reaches into, that instill alertness while I read, and whose environments evoke worlds that I can almost touch, smell and taste.<\/p><\/div>

I am, therefore, drawn to books that have a sharp intellect, but also a large heart and soul.<\/p><\/div>

I find such books in all genres. The dominant europatriarchal knowledge systems encourage us to think in binary ways, not only in politics and education, but also when it comes to reading. We categorise books into fiction vs nonfiction, adult literature vs. children\u2019s literature, women\u2019s writing, black writing, history, memoir, prose, poetry.<\/p><\/div>

These labels are valuable in many ways. They are especially useful when parts of our identity are vested in a particular type of writing. For example, reading black feminist literature always feels like a returning home of sorts to me. It also always informs my own writing, and so I cherish the canon that is black feminist literature.<\/p><\/div>

But both as a writer and a reader, I am primarily drawn to hybridity and to stitching worlds together. Disrupting borders is part of my motivation to write. Having my borders disrupted is part of my motivation to read.<\/p><\/div>

What<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>I\u2019m reading now is influenced by\u00a0<\/span>where<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>I\u2019m reading now. Namely at home, curled up on the couch, with a sense of time and presence. For a long time, I have been reading in fragments, in between doing other things. I have been reading especially while commuting, on trains, buses, planes. I have been reading in advance of talks and seminars, both mine and others\u2019. I have been reading while eating, sometimes even when walking, and worst of all, I have been reading a few pages here and there in between other tasks. The pandemic crisis forced upon me an unwelcome pause from previous routines, but one of the things that has been consoling during such a globally challenging time is the unanticipated time to read with my whole body. I am grateful for that.<\/p><\/div>

I\u2019ve most recently read moving books like\u00a0<\/span>Matt de la Pe\u00f1a\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Milo Imagines the World<\/i><\/b>, with its unforgettably adorable and warming storytelling;\u00a0<\/span>No One is Too Small to Make a Difference<\/i>, by Greta Thunberg<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>who in my view is one of the most inspiring writers and people active at the moment. I keep returning to\u00a0<\/span>Alexis Pauline Gumbs\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Undrowned<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>as it opened up new worlds for me.\u00a0<\/span>Victoria Chang\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>OBIT<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>both broke my heart and consoled me on the topic of loss. And I have been rereading\u00a0<\/span>Wole Soyinka\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>The Man Died<\/i><\/b>, and as always with Soyinka, encountering wells of wisdom in his profoundly humanist sensibility.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Minna Salami<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>is a Nigerian, Finnish and Swedish writer, feminist theorist, researcher and the author of the internationally-acclaimed book\u00a0<\/span>Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for\u00a0Everyone<\/i>, published in March 2020. Translated into multiple languages,\u00a0<\/span>Sensuous Knowledge<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>has been called \u201cintellectual soul food\u201d (Bernardine Evaristo), \u201cvital\u201d (Chris Abani) and \u201cmetaphysical journey into the genius the West hasn\u2019t given language to\u201d (Johny Pitts). Minna has written for the Guardian, Al Jazeera, World Literature Today and is a columnist for Esperanto Magazine. She has presented talks at the UN, EU, The Oxford Union, The Cambridge Union, Yale University and The Singularity University at NASA. She is co-director of the feminist movement, Activate, and a Feminist Theorist and Researcher at Perspectiva. She sits on the advisory board of the African Feminist Initiative at Pennsylvania State University and the editorial board of the Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Sahel. She lives in London.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Reading<\/b><\/p>

Milo Imagines the World<\/i><\/b>, Matt de la Pe\u00f1a (G.P. Putnam\u2019s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2021)<\/b><\/p><\/div>

No One is Too Small to Make a Difference<\/i><\/b>, Greta Thunberg (Penguin, 2019)\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p><\/div>

Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals<\/i><\/b>, Alexis Pauline Gumbs (AK Press, 2021)<\/b><\/b><\/p><\/div>

OBIT<\/i><\/b>, Victoria Chang (Copper Canyon Press, 2020)<\/b><\/b><\/p><\/div>

The Man Died: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span>(Vintage; New edition, 1994)<\/b><\/b><\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Please note the views published in\u00a0What I am Reading Now…<\/i>\u00a0are personal reflections of the contributors.
These may not necessarily represent the views of the University of Dundee.
<\/span>\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>

Home<\/a><\/p>

Previous Issue: Hardeep Pandhal, February 2021<\/a>
Next Issue: Jade Montserrat, April 2021<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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about projects What I am Reading Now\u2026Minna SalamiMarch 2021 I am drawn to books that are imaginative, playful, and passionate. I am drawn to books that are insightful and eye-opening. I am drawn to books that remind me why I love words and writing, but also why I love reinventing and fighting. I am drawn …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":525,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2073","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/525"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2073"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3986,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2073\/revisions\/3986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}